My last holiday in Europe, and it was nice to get away to collect thoughts, reminisce about good times had... and all that. As it was a long weekend in London, and since I wanted to do some adventurous cycling before leaving.... well.. what better way than to cross over to another country on your el'cheapo mountain bike.

Preparations. Had to quickly oil the bike in the morning. I'd just installed the trip computer on the bicycle - I used the money garnered from the guys at work (as part of my farewell fund) to buy it - and what a great investment it was!

I woke up late, but sort of calculated in my mind as to whether I'd still make the 3.30pm ferry leaving Portsmouth. Approx 7hrs.... yeh! (120kms).

I really didn't know where I was going, but managed to print out a few maps from google the day before. With ipod all charged up, I set off. It started raining whilst I was leaving London, and yeh, I got a bit wet. But about 30kms out, it started drying out. My meals on the way to Portsmouth included a load of bread (for carbs), and nuts (for salt), and of course, water. I didn't stop for lunch, but got to Portsmouth at about 2pm. I'd never been to Portsmouth before, so got kind of lost looking for the Ferry terminal, but after getting directions a few times, managed to find it ok (it's ok by car, but there are some roads where a bicycle rider would probably die attempting).

Ok... so what follows are photos starting from Portsmouth.

As a side note, I missed my scheduled ferry home, so phoned into the office saying I wouldn't be in as I was still in France :) You don't plan for these things, but you don't let it get to you and just enjoy your time. I had to rush back, aches and pains, as I had a dinner with Ren that evening at La Gavroche (a 2-michelin star restaurant). Just made it... barely :)